Apr 12, 2013

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to review any products. Mainly it's because things have been working pretty well at my day job, so I've been content sitting back and not touching anything to make sure it's all running fine.

Well occasionally I have a side-gig at my dentists office where I maintain his network and computers. In exchange he pays me for my first hour of labor, and the rest goes as a credit for all the ridiculous dentist work my family always ends up needing. It ends up working out okay.

Anyway, a few months ago my dentist was complaining that two of his workstations were making an obnoxious sound. I cracked open the cases and let them run and listened to where the sound was coming from. It turned out to be a problem with the power supply fans in both machines.

We went to Frys and purchased two of the Apevia ATX-AS520W-BK 520W ATX Power Supply's which had adjustable fan speed that could be controlled on the back by a knob. Not to mention that they looked pretty cool, and I figured 530W was more than enough to run the workstations. Here is picture of it:

Okay, so this PSU looks pretty cool and all, but it's a complete piece of junk! A month later both of these brand new Apevia PSU's started making the exact same annoying sound!

I had to come back and replace them one more time. This time I went with a basic 350W PSU without the fancy bells and whistles, and it seems to be working much better. Plus it was way cheaper! The new one is the Antec Basiq BP350 350 Watt Power Supply which is only $29.99 at Amazon. Compare that to the $45.93 of the Apevia.

Time will tell how the Anteq handles though. Who knows, maybe it will crap out after a month too. If it does, I'll be sure to let you guys know first!